The Americas | Lessons learned after Canada’s Frankenfires

Canadians are taking dramatic steps to avoid more ruinous firestorms

The focus is as much on mitigation and preparation as on suppression

Smoke columns from the Truax Creek wildfire, Ontario, on May 12, 2024.
Photograph: Getty Images
|LITTLE SUSHWAP LAKE, British Columbia

Stumpy, soot-stained foundations of homes, charred fir trees that crumble when touched and the skeletons of petrol stations offer mute testimony to the ferocity of the wildfire that roared through the hamlet of Scotch Creek last year. The smoke from it and myriad other Canadian fires reached Baltimore, Barcelona, Berlin and beyond.

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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Smokey heads north”

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